Giving Compass' Take:

• Researchers report that satellite images, drone photos, and even Google Earth could help identify communities most at risk for schistosomiasis, one of the world’s worst tropical diseases.

• How can funders help support technology and research aiming to identify disease hotspots? What parts of the world are getting hit the hardest?

• Here's an article on the global burden of disease metrics and how it can be better. 

A new study shows that clues in the environment can help identify transmission hotspots for the parasitic disease that is second only to malaria in its global health impact. Researchers used rigorous field sampling and aerial images to precisely map communities that are at greatest risk.

“This is a game-changer for developing-country public health agencies, because it will make it possible for them to efficiently find the villages that need their help the most,” says Chelsea Wood, an assistant professor in the University of Washington School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences and lead author of the paper, published in PNAS.

More than 200 million people have schistosomiasis, which is treatable but has been difficult to eliminate from some regions of the world.

Schistosomes, the worms that cause the disease, grow within freshwater snails, where they multiply and enter the waters of rivers, lakes, and streams. To infect people, the worms penetrate the skin when they swim, bathe, or wade.

Schistosomiasis causes bloody urine and stool and abdominal pain, and can damage the liver, spleen, intestines, lungs, and bladder. In children, the infection can stunt growth and impair cognitive development.

Read the full article on how drones are monitoring disease hotspots by Michelle Ma at Futurity.